DeFi tokenized real-world asset deposits triple to $7.4 billion

Deposits of tokenized real world assets in DeFi increase to US$7.4 billion

Over the past year, the size of tokenized real world assets (RWAs) deposited on decentralized finance (DeFi) lending platforms and exchanges has more than tripled, jumping from US$2.3 billion to US$7.4 billion. This data comes from the latest report, but DeFi's total deposits fell by about 15% during the same period.

Changes in trading volume and asset concentration

This joint report titled "Growth in Hybrid Finance" covers data from the second quarter of 2025 to the second quarter of 2026. The research results reveal a significant divergence between the performance of traditional DeFi assets and on-chain tokenized real-world tools. While total spot trading volume on decentralized exchanges fell by about 70% year-on-year, RWA trading volume surged by about 220%.

It is worth noting that trading volume and open interest on tokenized real-world assets continue to grow in perpetual contract trading venues, despite a slowdown in the overall DeFi market since October 2025. Currently, RWA accounts for more than one-quarter of the open interest in perpetual futures contracts on the chain.

Tokenized treasury bonds and multi-strategy funds (including JTRSY, BUIDL, and sUSDS) account for the largest share of these assets, followed by private credit products (such as JAAA, syrupUSDC, and PRIME), and delta-neutral strategies (such as sUSDe). Spot trading volume is mainly led by tokenized gold, while perpetual contract activity is concentrated in oil, precious metals, U.S. stocks (such as the S & P 500 and Nasdaq 100), and technology and semiconductor stocks.

An industry insider commented that the rise of RWA on the chain does not mean that investors are leaving traditional financial markets: "Investors have not abandoned traditional finance. Treasury bonds, gold, S & P 500, semiconductor stocks-all of these are actively used on the chain, and none of them are crypto-assets."

Ethereum still dominates, but new platforms emerge

Currently, nearly 70% of RWA collateral is stored on Ethereum-based lending platforms. Plasma has become the second-largest network with Aave's expansion beyond Ethereum, while Solana's growth in this space is mainly due to the native RWA lending platform Kamino. The platforms with the most concentrated deposits are Aave, Morpho and Kamino.

Despite the surge in on-chain activity, revenue related to trading and lending platforms has not grown in sync; application revenue has actually declined over the past year, which the report attributed to the fact that RWA adoption is still in its early stages. Hyperliquid is a key exception, with app revenue far exceeding its competitors and surpassing Solana and Ethereum as the highest-grossing chain. According to reports, for the first time in a week, the transaction volume of real-world assets on Hyperliquid exceeded that of crypto-assets, with semiconductor manufacturer SK Hynix having the highest transaction volume.

Market Background and Future Outlook

Earlier this year, tokenized real-world assets increased 8.7% month-on-month to US$24.8 billion, while the total value of DeFi locked positions fell 25% to US$94.8 billion. An industry source said that due to the compression of yields, investors shifted funds from DeFi to tokenized treasury bonds with a yield of about 4%. An asset management company's funds have issued two new tokenized money market funds and introduced a tokenized share class for its European money market funds (with a total size of US$311 billion).

However, compared to traditional finance, the scale of tokenized RWAs is still limited. Currently, only about US$2.2 billion of global stocks (worth more than US$100 trillion) are tokenized, which the report compares with the early market position of stablecoins in 2019. The analysis only considers distributed assets that can be transferred outside of their distribution platforms, and therefore excludes networks such as Canton and Provenance.

The fast-growing RWA field also highlights the importance of investors 'need for complex tools. Some platforms simplify portfolio management, allowing users to monitor real-time price and market data without creating an account, helping investors keep pace. Through features such as smart price alerts, selected news filtering, discovery of newly listed altcoins, and macroeconomic indicators such as the Federal Reserve interest rate, investors gain an advantage in tracking these assets and responding to market changes.